today: ４０８７歩
It's been about a month since I've kept the
pedometer going, but living in Japan let's
you walk walk walk. I mean literally,
you have to walk to get somewhere.
You have only your legs to rely on.
Where ever you go, however you feel
people of all ages must walk to their destinations.
I like it that walking becomes the means
of transporation because it gives you
rhythm, a natural flow, an up and down
movement of the body, with hints of
some sway, here and there, some hop
and a lunge that gives the
body some air to suck up..

In passing, people living in Africa
walk about 21km a day, where it's going
to school, or collecting fresh water from
a nearby well. So if one lunges 70cm per
step, a broad calculation will tell us that
they take about 30,000 steps. If one takes
two steps in a second, that's 15,000seconds
=4hours and 10 minutes+α of walking per day.

I take about 16500steps a day, running and
walking. Personally, I hate to walk. If I had
to walk, I would rather run. The time spent
dragging the body, slowly and slowly to a
destination is quite unattractive when you
can do it in a shorter time.
And many contemporarians may think likewise.

However as I mentionedearlier, people from different
countries spendroughly one fourth
of their waking time, walking,
slowly, not rushing business, though things like
lugging water from wells is a necessary element
of life. Maybe there is a secret in the slowness
of the matter. Maybe it's not always in the best
interest of the walker to move fast. Maybe there
are more elements to concentrate on, while taking
extra time to move. And just maybe, I maybe
missing something important by moving through
life at break neck speeds.
+松本哲郎